Irrigated area determination: a case study in the Province of San Juan,Argentina

Much of the central-western region of Argentina, where San Juan Province is located, experiences arid to semi-arid climatic conditions with low average annual rainfall accompanied by substantial evapotranspiration. Consequently, a viable crop industry depends to a large extent upon irrigation from major river systems. Increasing demand for water in the lower basin of the San Juan River is emphasizing the need for more accurate estimates of water used for irrigation. Since the water demand for a particular crop is very closely related to crop area, monitoring the area of crop under irrigation is considered a proxy for the amount of water used. Landsat 5 imagery for the growing season, field data and aerial photographs were used to evaluate crop area.     

The continental record of Ediacaran volcano‐sedimentary successions in southern Brazil and their global implications

The Ediacaran is one of the most important periods on Earth evolution, including the first appearance of soft‐bodied macrofossils, major climatic changes and a supposed rise in free oxygen. In southernmost Brazil, this period is represented by Camaquã Supergroup, including the Bom Jardim Group and the Acampamento Velho Formation, both of which record continental palaeoenvironmental changes in a more than 5000 m thick stratigraphic succession. Age constraints are given by seven Ar‐Ar and U‐Pb determinations on volcanic rocks, which bracket these units between c. 605 and 574 Ma, revealing the best dated and most continuous documented Ediacaran continental succession to date. Depositional systems evolution supports a Phanerozoic‐type glacial context during the last Neoproterozoic glacial event and presents the Picada das Graças Formation (580 ± 3.6 Ma) as the first dated non‐glacial unit coeval to the Gaskiers Formation.     

Predicting the risk of saltwater contamination of freshwater aquifers during aquifer thermal energy storage

Aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) is an underground thermal energy storage technology with a large potential to decarbonise the heating and cooling of buildings. ATES installations typically store thermal energy in aquifers that are also exploited for potable water, so a major consideration during development is ensuring that system operation will not lead to groundwater pollution. In this study, the risk of contamination due to upconing of a shallow freshwater/saltwater interface during ATES operation is investigated. Fluid flow, and heat and salt (chloride ion) transport are simulated in a homogeneous aquifer during ATES operation via a well doublet. The impact of geological, hydrological and operational parameters is investigated in a sensitivity analysis. Two new dimensionless numbers are proposed to characterise salt upconing and redistribution during ATES operation and provide a close match to simulated concentrations: C_R,w characterises the contamination risk at the ATES installation, and C_R,d characterises the risk at locations downstream of the ATES installation with respect to background groundwater flow. ATES systems with C_R,w and C_R,d < 10 introduce low risk of contamination in a homogenous aquifer, with chloride concentration at, and downstream of, the ATES system, remaining below the World Health Organisation’s advised limit. ATES installations with C_R,w and C_R,d > 10 cause a rapid increase in aquifer chloride concentration. The results are used to estimate an exclusion distance beyond which ATES system operation will not cause contamination in a homogenous aquifer. The dimensionless parameters proposed allow rapid assessment of the potential for saltwater contamination during ATES operation.

     

Pseudo- and real-inverted metamorphism caused by the superposition and extrusion of a stack of nappes: a case study of the Southern Brasília Orogen,Brazil

International Journal of Earth Sciences - The Southern Brasília Orogen is a Neoproterozoic belt that occurs along the southernmost border of the São Francisco Craton where the...     

Rock fall hazard control along a section of railway based on quantified risk

Rock falls represent a large percentage of landslide-related hazards reported by Canadian railways in mountainous terrain. A 54.7?km-long section of railway through the Canadian Cordillera is examined that experiences, on average, 18 rock falls each year. An approach for rock fall hazard management is developed based on quantified risk. The approach focuses on defining railway operation procedures (freight train operations and track maintenance) that comply with quantified risks. Weather-based criteria that define periods when rock falls are more likely to occur along the study area are examined. These criteria are used herein to reduce exposure to rock falls and reduce their consequences. Several freight train operation strategies are proposed that comply with a tolerable level of risk adopted in this study for illustrative purposes. The approach provides a simple, flexible and practical strategy for railway operations that can be regularly adopted by the operators, and that is based on a more comprehensive assessment of quantified risk.     

Metasomatic events recorded in ultramafic xenoliths from the Hyblean area (Southeastern Sicily, Italy)

Three types of ultramafic xenoliths from the Hyblean area (Sicily) show prime evidence for mantle metasomatism, namely: 1) Spinel-facies depleted harzburgite veined by phlogopite-bearing clinopyroxenite; 2) Amphibole-bearing harzburgite; and 3) Al-spinel websterite. (2) and (3) exhibit glassy pockets having respectively mugearitic and basanitic compositions, but a little amount of glass with low Ca and very low alkalis in (2). Glasses generally show trace element distributions consistent with the partial melting of pargasite-dominated mineral assemblages. Abundant Ca-Mg-carbonate globules immersed in these glassy pockets testify to immiscibility between silicate and carbonatite melts. Silicate melts and hydrous-silicate supercritical fluids, which underwent phase separation during fluxing throughout the semi-brittle lithospheric mantle, may account for such metasomatizing processes. The nature and abundance of some fluid-mobile elements in glasses and hydrous minerals (especially the Ca-poor glass, with B?=?59 ppm, Li?=?27 ppm, Ba?=?700 ppm and phlogopite, with Ba?=?8,465 ppm, Sr?=?260 ppm, F?=?5,700 ppm) suggest that some hydrous fluids may derive from hydrothermally altered oceanic crust. Conversely, metasomatizing silicate melts probably have a deep-seated origin. These results confirm previous suggestions on the key role of mantle metasomatism in the origin of some alkaline Hyblean magmas.